


Luckiest man alive

by PerriewinkleNerdie



Category: Open Heart (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-12
Updated: 2019-09-12
Packaged: 2020-10-17 09:13:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20618573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerriewinkleNerdie/pseuds/PerriewinkleNerdie
Summary: Her accident makes him confess his feelings to her and to himself





	Luckiest man alive

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, hello, hello!  
Another mix between fluff and comfort, three words and some shed tears  
Enjoy! <3

Pager was an essential tool in the life of every doctor. It allowed communicating with other doctors, getting information about your patients, and enabled staff members call doctors to ER for new cases.

It was very rare for Ethan to get paged by other attendings for other things than subjects regarding the inner matters of the hospital. Most of his pages were about his current patients, updates on their state.

When his pager beeped with a message from Ines, he wasn’t all that surprised. What did surprise him was the content of the said message.

‘_Get to ER as soon as possible, we have one of our doctors’_

The fact that she didn’t say who was the doctor in trouble made him confused. He paged her back to inform her he was on his way and asked for more information but she had none to give. She didn’t know that herself. Turns out she got a page about a doctor who had an accident while coming out of the hospital after their shift.

He got to the ER after a few minutes, still confused. Coming through the door he took a look around the room, trying to identify the doctor he was called to, but there was no one there that needed help. He turned to the nurse, a scowl on his face.

“I was called here to help the doctor who had an accident. Where are they?”

“Oh, they’re not here yet, we were informed that someone found them a few meters from the entrance and would bring them in a couple of minutes…”

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of the door opening and a shout in their direction.

Ethan turned around to see the young surgical intern, dr. Lahela, coming towards him fast, his face twisted with concern. In his arms was a young woman, her left leg and her clothes covered in blood.

It was _Claire_.

He felt is heart stop for a moment before picking up again, beating twice as fast, his eyes widening with fear. He ran towards the young doctor, taking her from his arms, tucking her safely in his arms.

He went towards one of the beds, placing her gently on it before stretching her leg and examining it.

“Claire, what happened?” he seemed to forget where they were and who could hear them. He forgot that no one knew about their growing feelings, about their secret meetings at his place, about the way she made him feel with just a glance. How she made him feel like a new man, all because of the time she took to get to know him during those eight months of their relationship.

“I was walking back home when a car driving by lost control, the driver must have made some sort of a mistake and I missed it, because the next thing I knew, I was on the ground and my leg was twisted in this weird direction and there was blood everywhere and…” she was trying really hard to not let her pain show but she was falling apart, fast, and she had no idea how long she would be able to keep up her act.

“Hey, calm down, okay? It’s just you and me, baby, let it all out.” He whispered to her ear, making sure that no one would hear them.

She broke down, tears streaming down her face, sobs wrecking her body, grabbing on to his arms and hanging on tightly, her knuckles white from the force. He pulled her closer, stroking her hair and trying to calm her. He didn’t give a damn about what it looked like from the outside. She needed him and he wasn’t about to leave her alone when she was in pain.

The nurse came over, cleaning her wound, then Ethan stood up to furtherly examine her leg, keeping her hand in his, holding on tightly.

“From what I can see, it’s not broken, the only thing is that wound, but we need to make sure it’s nothing internal. Don’t worry, you’ll live. You’re not leaving me this soon.” He joked, knowing that he was exaggerating but he was ready to do anything to make her smile despite her pain.

And sure enough, a hint of smile appeared on her face. A few hours later she was cleared of having any troubles with her leg, her wound was cleared and patched up and she was admitted to her own room.

Ethan had his duties that he couldn’t abandon. He felt guilty, leaving her there all alone, but she insisted that she was okay, she understood that better than anyone else.

\----------

A few hours later he made his way towards her room, already in his regular clothes. He would take her home with him tonight, he got the green light to get her out of the hospital.

He stood outside her door, his hand on the doorknob, a slight crack that enabled him to see what was going on inside the room.

There she was, laying on her bed, a little less tired than usual, probably because she finally got a chance to get some sleep. By her bed was that doctor who brought her in, they were talking calmly, but he could hear their conversation.

“Claire… can I ask you a question? And I want you to be honest with me. I’ll understand if you don’t want to talk about it but it’s been on my mind the whole day and I just…”

“Bryce, chill! You’re going to die out of lack of oxygen if you don’t slow down! Ask away, I’ll try to answer.” She laughed, her eyes shining.

“Okay… so, this afternoon, when I brought you in… Dr. Ramsey seemed pretty concerned about you…” Ethan could see the alarm in her eyes, he could practically hear the gears turning in her head, trying to think of anything to say.

They were talking about telling her friends about it, keeping their relationship a secret was becoming more and more difficult with each and every day that passed. He gave her a green light if she wanted to tell them. _Anything and everything to make her happy._

“Dr. Ramsey is just worried that I won’t be able to take care of my patients.” She deflected the question with a flat out lie, her eyes dulling a little.

“Claire… I saw you two today. You were hanging on to him for dear life and he was holding you like you were his whole world. It didn’t look like an attending worried about his intern not being able to work.”

“Bryce…” she interrupted, but he kept on talking.

“Claire. He looked so vulnerable, so… _hurt and scared_. I’ve never seen a man more terrified of something in my whole life. If you don’t feel comfortable, you don’t have to tell me anything but…”

“Okay… me and Ethan are dating.” She said quickly before sitting more straight, avoiding eye contact with him.

“Claire… that’s good I guess? Right?”

“Yeah… great even.” A soft smile appeared on her face.

“You seem happy. I’m glad you are.”

“I… have never been happier, Bryce. He’s just so… _good. He’s a good person, and I couldn’t have been more lucky to get to spend my time with him._”

He chose this moment to make his presence known, knocking lightly on the door before sticking his head inside.

“How are you feeling?” worry in his voice is evident, his eyes found hers, searching for any discomfort.

“I’m okay. The only thing is that wound, you know that.” She smiled at him, a wide and genuine smile.

“I’ll leave you to talk. See you soon, Claire! Dr. Ramsey.” Bryce nodded towards him and left the room. He waited for the door to close before making his way to her side, taking his hand in his, bringing it to his lips and kissing it gently.

“You ready to leave?” he asked, waiting for her reaction.

“Leave?” she was surprised but excited that she won’t have to spend the night at the hospital.

“Yes. I’m taking you with me, you can leave now. As soon as you’re ready.” He reached to stroke her cheek softly with the back of his hand. She grabbed his face and pulled him closer, their foreheads touching, breathing in slowly.

“I’m ready. Let’s go.” She whispered, smiling, and began getting ready.

\----------

Their ride home was quiet, soft music playing in the background. She was looking around her, out the window, straight ahead. Most of her attention, though, was on the man next to her. He had dark circles under his eyes, his forehead was more creased than usual. She reached over and put her hand on his thigh, squeezing it gently. She felt him relax a little, her touch providing much needed comfort.

Once outside his car, he made his way over to her side, opened the door and helped her out. Before she could make one step towards the door, he had her up in his arms, carrying her with ease.

“Ethan!” her laughter was like the most beautiful music for his ears. She kissed his cheek and his nose, making him laugh as well.

They entered his apartment, ate some food and got ready for bed. Ethan helped her change her bandage, cleaning the wound and putting a fresh cover on it.

Claire was pretty sure she would be able to do it herself, but Ethan seemed not to hear her when she said that, instead immediately getting to work.

When he was done he kissed her ankle sweetly and she felt some moisture on her skin. Looking down at him she realized he was crying, tears were falling down his cheeks and he couldn’t seem to make them stop, despite his best efforts.

“Ethan? What’s wrong, what happened?” she was alarmed. He _never_ cried.

He was silent for a few moments, not saying anything. Then he looked up at her and with the biggest determination and certainty in his voice he spoke.

“I love you.”

It wasn’t the first time she heard those exact words from him, but because he very rarely spoke about his feelings to that extent and because he was still careful, every time she heard it was special and close to her heart.

“I love you, Claire. I know I don’t say it enough but… I could have lost you today. You were so close to leaving me and there was nothing I could do about it and it got me thinking that I don’t want to go through my life without making sure you know how much I love and respect you. Without reminding you that I love you every chance I can. You are my world, Claire. I would cease to exist if you were gone. That’s how important you are to me. And I’m the luckiest man in the world for getting to be with _you_, honey. I want you to know that you are in my head every single moment of my day and in every single dream at night.”

She leaned forward to hug him, bringing his head to her chest, kissing his hair, keeping him close, meanwhile his arms wrapped themselves around her waist and his face was buried in her neck. He was still crying but by now it seemed like the tears were cleansing him of all the emotions of the day.

“Come on, baby, let’s get you to bed, huh?” she whispered, pulling him towards her and laying them both down, holding each other close.

“Claire?” his voice was low, still a little cracked by his breakdown.

“Yes?” she was stroking his hair softly, humming some tune under her breath.

“I heard your conversation with dr. Lahela before I entered the room.” He confessed, afraid of what she’ll say.

“You were eavesdropping, Dr. Ramsey? No...” she made a sarcastic comment as she reminded him of his scolding for when he caught _her_ eavesdropping on him.

“Yeah, not my proudest moment but…”

“Ethan, I knew you were there.” she waited for him to turn around, waiting to see his face. Sure enough, upon hearing her words he raised his head from her stomach and looked at her.

“Wait, really? Why didn’t you say anything?” he was confused, not really understanding the thought process behind her actions.

“I didn’t mind you listening, we weren’t talking about anything _scandalous_…” she smiled at him knowingly, making him blush a little, a soft smile on his lips. “Besides, I know how jealous you can get and I wanted you to know how I feel. I wanted you to see me tell Bryce about us so you know you have _nothing_ to worry about.” She held his gaze, waiting for some sort of a comment.

“When I saw you today, him carrying you into ER… my mind for a split second went towards other scenarios, and I am ashamed that sometimes I cannot control my anger and my jealousy, it’s just that… I don’t always see _why_ you keep me around.” His voice trailed off, small and insecure.

She leaned forward slightly to grab his face in both her hands and kissed his lips, closing her eyes. Then she looked him straight in the eye and spoke.

“_I love you too_. You know that, right?” she smiled brightly, waiting for him to answer.

“I do, and I am the _luckiest man alive_ because _you _chose _me_. I’m never going to make you regret that decision, I promise.” He laid her back down and took her in his arms, bringing her body to lay on top of his, his cheek by her hair.

“I know I won’t regret it. I’m sure of it. You are the one for me, you’re selfless, you value life and you want to help people. You listen, you care and you _love_. That’s why, it’s simple. I love you. And you love me.” she murmured slowly, hugging herself closer to him, his arms tightening around her.

He kissed her head right before they both fell asleep, soft smiles growing on their faces.


End file.
